BP Atlantis

[G_j]

just a reminder,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8489418

7,000 feet deep, produces 8.4 million gallons of oil every day


the BP Atlantis lacks more than 6,000 documents that are key to operating the rig safely. Abbott has said that the vast majority of the project's subsea piping and instrument diagrams were not approved by engineers, and the safety systems are out of date. In March 2009, Abbott took his concerns about the rig to MMS, the Department of Interior office responsible for regulating offshore drilling. He says the agency requested some of these documents from BP, but failed to seek specific diagrams of key components necessary for ensuring the rig's secure operation.

An internal BP email that came out in the course of Abbott's dispute refers to the potential for "catastrophic operator errors" on the rig due to these lapses. The suit argues that without these documents, the rig operators "are flying blind, and have no way to assure the safety of offshore drilling operations." Food & Water Watch began pushing for lawmakers to intervene on the rig back in August 2009.

~~~~~
asking people to go to the website www.spillthetruth.org and ask President Obama to shut it down immediately.

[Poll_Blind]

1. +1

PB

[G_j]

2. thanks for the rec, though it's gone now

hey BP :hi:

[Poll_Blind]

4. Heh, indeed! Still, looks like DU can overcome the pressure of the...

...muck!

PB

[chill_wind]

10. Only muck

would trivialize the concern about the potential disaster of another such as this one.

[Bluebear]

3. k/r

[Poll_Blind]

5. There's a guy on Olbermann named "Abbot" right NOW who's talking...

...about the Atlantis.

Tune in HERE

PB

[G_j]

6. good timing

thanks for the heads up!

[chill_wind]

7. K & R-- listening on Countdown now.

[G_j]

8. thanks KO

BP Atlantis

[chill_wind]

9. Understand that Salazar has been fighting in the court to keep it operational

while MMS's own probe is ongoing about its safety.

The case is Abbott v. Salazar, 4:10-cv-01759, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston).

BP Atlantis Oil Platform Should Operate During Probe, U.S. Says
June 11, 2010, 12:04 AM EDT
Laurel Brubaker Calkins

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc’s Atlantis oil and natural- gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico should remain in production while regulators investigate a whistleblower’s allegations that the installation is unsafe, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Salazar said.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore drilling, will decide after completing its probe whether to shut Atlantis, which produces 200,000 barrels of oil and 180 million cubic feet of gas daily, Salazar said.

(...)

‘10 Percent Complete’

“Given the quantity of records and need for MMS to focus on responding to the Deepwater Horizon accident, the investigation is only approximately 10 percent complete,” Salazar said.

Abbott, who managed Atlantis’s engineering documentation database until he left BP in early 2009, said MMS failed to respond when he brought his safety concerns to the agency last year and again this year. MMS initiated the probe in February, at the request of 19 congressional representatives who learned of Abbott’s complaint. The agency had said it would report its findings in May.

Abbott claims almost 90 percent of the platform’s engineering and safety documents lacked final approval, as required by U.S. law. Atlantis’s operators have no “as-built” drawings on the platform’s actual construction, leaving them vulnerable to mistakes in an emergency, he said.

[hayu_lol]

11. I'm afraid that much of the blame of this and other spills/blowouts...

is due to our very own MMS inspectors who had such enjoyable times being wined and dined extravagantly instead of getting down to business and requiring all the t's to be crossed and all the i's dotted on hard documents as required.

BP certainly did NOT comply with the rules and requirements of deep drilling. Their shortcuts should have been caught and criminal proceedings initiated immediately.

The Gulf and all the life in and around it will be affected for the next century at least.

[BeFree]

12. Salazar

What's this guy Salazar got... like 9 lives or something?

He must have a lot of 'big people' as friends.

[chill_wind]

13. Keeping fingers crossed

that this new appointee (Michael Bromwich)finds a way to end his reign.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4428369#4428452

[G_j]

14. "served as an associate counsel in the Iran-Contra investigation"

that worries me a bit, since the hearings were a whitewash, still, don't know enough about what he did to judge.